“Based on the Trips to the Zone of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, the Smoke Creek gathering has been an underground event occurring for an unknown number of years. Its occurrence on the banks of Squaw Creek Reservoir on the northern edge of the vast Smoke Creek Desert has roughly coincided with Burning Man every year. It began as an informal gathering for “old-school” Burners (as attendees of the Burning Man event are called) who felt restricted by the controls imposed on event participants as the event grew in size. A few veterans who wished to make their own rules left to camp at the free Bureau of Land Management-managed campgrounds at the lakeside of the Squaw Valley Reservoir once Black Rock City, LLC imposed the following restrictions:

A ban on driving, except for approved “mutant vehicles” and service vehicles.[1]